Consumers and some Chinese media accused suppliers of creating a phony crisis to get the government to raise prices at the pump.

But fuel supplies have long been tight across China, a problem that oil companies blamed on a lack of investment in refineries because of government controls preventing them from passing along increases in world crude prices to consumers.

The companies say the surge in petroleum prices to new highs led some Chinese refiners to suspend production to avoid losses, resulting in a drop in deliveries that workers at filling stations said began early last week.

Supplies are particularly short in southern China, which is home to many of China's manufacturing areas. Some filling stations imposed informal rationing, limiting the amount of fuel that individual drivers can buy.

"There is just no diesel," said Li Yuanquan, a moving van driver stuck in a line of 40 vehicles hoping to fill up at a station in Shenzhen, a southern boomtown near Hong Kong. "I've already waited for about two hours and I'm mad, but there's no point in being angry."

The National Development and Reform Commission, the country's main planning agency, said China's first fuel price hike in 18 months was ordered to narrow the gap between crude costs and pump prices.

It said prices would rise by 9.1 percent for gasoline and 9.9 percent for diesel, but added that prices at some retailers could increase nearly twice that much.